House Democrats probe DOJ’s botched Reflecting Pool case against former Olympian

Lawmakers have demanded the Trump administration explain whether it knew the pool’s newly installed liner was failing before indicting David Hearn on vandalism charges.WASHINGTON (CN) — A top House lawmaker on Tuesday opened an investigation into the Justice Department’s ill-fated prosecution of a former Olympic canoeist it accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, days after the agency dropped the case and admitted it lacked evidence.A federal judge last week dismissed the suit against David Hearn after the Justice Department acknowledged that the new liner in the Reflecting Pool had failed because of a “botched installation” rather than intentional destruction.Now, Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, has demanded the Trump administration explain whether it knew shoddy workmanship was to blame before it accused Hearn of tearing up the pool liner.“Did the United States Attorney’s Office for D.C. in fact maliciously prosecute an American citizen it knew to be innocent with a felony charge carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison?” the lawmaker wrote in a letter sent Tuesday to D.C. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum. “Did the U.S. Department of the Interior … deliberately mislead prosecutors to cover up a ‘botched’ renovation by a company awarded a dubious $15 million insider no-bid contract?”The Trump administration earlier this year undertook a major renovation project at the Reflecting Pool, selecting Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings to install a coat of “American flag blue” liner in the national landmark. But days after the job was completed, sections of the new liner were photographed peeling off the bottom of the pool.President Donald Trump and his administration have repeatedly asserted, with little to no evidence, that vandals and “radical left lunatics” were responsible for the damage. And the Justice Department in June arrested Hearn at the Reflecting Pool after he picked up a piece of peeled liner, later charging him with malicious destruction of property.But last month, the Justice Department moved to dismiss its own lawsuit, writing in a filing it had learned the damage to the Reflecting Pool was “the result of a botched installation and not vandalism” as it had initially claimed. The agency said the new information “significantly undermine[d]” its indictment and blamed the Interior Department for failing to turn it over at first.According to the Justice Department in its filing, the Interior Department wrote to the Reflecting Pool contractors a week before Hearn’s arrest to discuss the peeling liner but did not provide that information to federal prosecutors until after the former Olympian had been indicted. A damage assessment conducted on the Reflecting Pool and submitted as evidence in Hearn’s case similarly showed the pool liner was failing before his arrest.Writing to Pirro and Burgum on Tuesday, Raskin questioned how the prosecution against Hearn could have moved forward if the government lacked the complete scope of evidence.“The conclusion seems inescapable that at least one, if not both, of you have misled the American public about the evidence and used it to corrupt and weaponize our justice system against an innocent 67-year-old American citizen,” he wrote.The Maryland Democrat demanded to know whether Justice Department officials knowingly undertook a “bogus” indictment and whether Trump pressured federal prosecutors or the Interior Department to “retaliate” against Hearn.“At a minimum, it appears that members of the Trump Administration were ready and willing to imprison an innocent American for a decade in a desperate effort to soothe an ex-landlord’s wounded ego about a terrible paint job and wasteful contract,” said Raskin. “We must get to the bottom of these murky waters to rid our justice system of any and all residual contamination.”The top House Democrat requested both the Justice Department and Interior Department hand over all documents related to the decision to prosecute Hearn with a felony, all evidence presented to the D.C. grand jury that handed down the indictment and all communications on the subject between both agencies and the White House.Raskin also asked the Justice Department to allow two witnesses named in grand jury materials to sit for transcribed interviews with members of Congress.A spokesperson for the Justice Department confirmed to Courthouse News that the agency received Raskin’s letter and “the appropriate personnel within the department are reviewing it carefully.”The Interior Department did not immediately return a request for comment.Trump, for his part, has maintained the damage to the Reflecting Pool was mainly due to vandalism and has criticized Pirro for dropping the case against Hearn. The U.S. attorney for D.C. met with the president at the White House last week, fueling speculation that her job may be in jeopardy. So far, however, there’s no evidence that Trump imminently plans to fire her.Burgum has also publicly broken with the Justice Department, writing in a social media post earlier this month it was “clear” that vandals were responsible for damaging the Reflecting Pool. The Interior Department, he said at the time, provided prosecutors with “every piece of evidence they asked for” including “expert and eyewitness testimony” on damage to the pool.“Intentional damage done to the Reflecting Pool is no different than defacing any one of our national monuments,” said the interior secretary. “We won’t back down to deranged people who want to destroy, deface or degrade our monuments.”The Trump administration last month again drained the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool as crews conduct repairs on the damaged liner.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads